Graduate Curriculum & Courses

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is designed to offer maximum flexibility in addressing your individual needs as a student. Following admission through a department, you will design your two-year plan of study based on optimizing the offerings and opportunities available throughout SAIC. You are encouraged to seek out curricular advising as needed from a variety of available sources including the dean, graduate dean, graduate division chair, department heads, academic advising, the graduate admissions office, and your peers.

Studio—MFA 6009 Graduate Projects, Seminars and/or maximum of 12 credits of 3000-level and above studios39
Art History12  
  • ARTHI 5002 Graduate Survey of Modern and Contemporary Art OR ARTHI 5120 Survey of Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Design(3)
  • Art History Courses, 4000-level or above (9)
 
Electives—any course in any area at 3000 level or above9  
Participation in four graduate critiques 
Participation in ONE of the following as appropriate to artistic practice:* Graduate Exhibition, AIADO or Fashion Exhibition, Graduate Performance Event, Graduate Screenings 
Total Credit Hours60 

* Students who wish to use an alternative venue or presentation outside of these options must receive permission from the Dean of Graduate Studies. The AIADO Department encourages students in their MFA design programs to participate in the AIADO and Fashion Graduate Exhibition.

Degree Requirements & Specifications

  • Completion schedule: You have a maximum of four years to complete your MFA in Studio degree. This includes time off for leaves of absence. Students will have access to studios for four semesters only.
  • Transfer credits: You must complete a minimum of 45 credit hours in residence at SAIC. You can request up to 15 transfer credits at the time of application for admission, which are subject to approval at that time. No transfer credits are permitted after a student is admitted.
  • Art History requirement: MFA students are required to take ARTHII 5002 Graduate Survey of Modern and Contemporary Art OR ARTHI 5120 Survey of Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Design. Art History courses must be at the 4000-level and above.
  • Undergraduate studio courses: Graduate students are permitted no more than one undergraduate studio course (3000-level and above) per semester without permission of the Dean of Graduate Studies. Courses at the 1000 and 2000-level are allowed only with permission.
  • Full-Time Status Minimum Requirement: 12 credit hours

MFA 6009 Graduate Projects

MFA 6009 Graduate Projects advising, an ongoing individual dialogue with a wide range of full-time and part-time faculty advisors, is at the heart of the MFA program at SAIC, encouraging interdisciplinary study across the curriculum. You are required to register for one MFA 6009 Graduate Projects advisor each semester, and we highly recommend you register for two.

In the registration process, you may elect to earn 3 or 6 hours of credit with each advisor. This option is designed to allow for maximum flexibility in designing your program. You can earn as few as 3 and as many as 6 credits with each advisor each semester, thus dedicating a maximum of 12 credit hours to your studio activity. The number of credits you earn has no correlation with the length or frequency of the advising sessions or to faculty assessment of student work.

The remainder of credits required for the full-time 15 credit hour load may include graduate seminars and academic or studio electives. MFA students are urged to take graduate seminars, and an introductory seminar in their department of admission is highly recommended. In addition, the MFA student may choose from all the art history, studio, and academic offerings across the curriculum (including undergraduate offerings above 3000 level) in any given semester to customize their degree experience.

Graduate Critiques

As one of the principal means of assessment each semester, you will be required to participate in Critique Week, a week-long schedule of critiques during which classes are suspended.

Fall semester critiques are organized by department with panels representing the discipline. This provides you with an opportunity to understand the department’s expectations, have your work reviewed from a disciplinary point of view, and to reiterate the expectations for graduate study.

Spring semester critiques are interdisciplinary, with panel members and students from across SAIC disciplines. Interdisciplinary critiques allow for a broad range of responses to your work, and are intended to assess the success of your work for a more general, albeit highly informed audience. Critique panels include faculty, visiting artists, and fellow graduate students.

Graduate Exhibition or Equivalent

At the conclusion of your studies, you will present work in the SAIC Graduate Thesis Exhibition, other end-of-year events at SAIC, or the Gene Siskel Film Center—or arrange with the graduate dean or division chair for an alternative thesis of equal professional quality. Each year more than 200 graduate students exhibit work, screen videos and films, and present time-based works, writings, and performance to a collective audience of 30,000 people.

Students wishing to install work around prevalent themes, strategies or stylistic affinities can participate in a juried and curated section of the SAIC Graduate Thesis Exhibition. A faculty and staff committee conducts extensive studio visits and as a collaborative project with student participants, organizes and installs the show in designated space at the exhibition.

Undergraduate Courses

MFA students are advised to understand the expectations of their faculty when enrolled in undergraduate studio classes. Although graduate students are an asset to the group dynamic, faculty requirements for graduate students in undergraduate classes are variable. The student is responsible for understanding the faculty member's expectations about completion of assignments, attendance, and any other criteria for earning credit. To assure that graduate students are working at degree level, they are permitted no more than one undergraduate studio course (3000 level and above) per semester without permission of the dean of graduate studies. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 level are allowed only with permission.

Course Listing

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

Description

This course provides an introduction to clay as a material. Participants will be introduced to a wide variety of methods and techniques to build, decorate, and glaze ceramic. Demonstrations in Hand-building, coiling, slap-building and surface application including glaze development and application, slip decoration and firing methods, will give students a proficiency in working with clay and in the ceramic department. Introductions to the rich and complex history of ceramic through readings, lectures and museum visits, will provide students with exposures to the critical discourse of contemporary ceramic. This is primarily a beginner's course but open to all levels of students. Readings will vary but typically include, Hands in Clay by Charlotte Speight and John Toki. Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art by Clare Lilley. Ten thousand years of pottery by Emmanuel Cooper. 20th Century Ceramics By Edmund de Waal. Live Form: Women, Ceramics, and Community by Jenni Sorkin. The course will look at artist like Magdalene Odundo, George E. Ohr, Shoji Hamada, Roberto Lugo and Nicole Cherubini as well as historic ceramic from the Art Institutes of Chicago?s collection. Students are expected to complete 3 projects by the end of the semester, Biweekly readings will be part of the course.

Class Number

1152

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm M152

Description

This course provides an introduction to clay as a material. Participants will be introduced to a wide variety of methods and techniques to build, decorate, and glaze ceramic. Demonstrations in Hand-building, coiling, slap-building and surface application including glaze development and application, slip decoration and firing methods, will give students a proficiency in working with clay and in the ceramic department. Introductions to the rich and complex history of ceramic through readings, lectures and museum visits, will provide students with exposures to the critical discourse of contemporary ceramic. This is primarily a beginner's course but open to all levels of students. Readings will vary but typically include, Hands in Clay by Charlotte Speight and John Toki. Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art by Clare Lilley. Ten thousand years of pottery by Emmanuel Cooper. 20th Century Ceramics By Edmund de Waal. Live Form: Women, Ceramics, and Community by Jenni Sorkin. The course will look at artist like Magdalene Odundo, George E. Ohr, Shoji Hamada, Roberto Lugo and Nicole Cherubini as well as historic ceramic from the Art Institutes of Chicago?s collection. Students are expected to complete 3 projects by the end of the semester, Biweekly readings will be part of the course.

Class Number

2104

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm M152

Description

This course will focus on developing beginning and continuing skills on the wheel. Students will be introduced to fundamental methods for using the wheel as a tool to create vessels with consideration of their meaning and consequence and stretch the boundaries of utility. In addition to the design and structure of functional objects, this course will familiarize students with the working properties of ceramic material, firing methods, and glazes. We will look at artists working both in traditional and non-traditional methods. Artists will vary, but some we will look at include: Edmund de Waal, Alleghany Meadows, Gerrit Grimm, Mike Helke, Steve Lee, and more. Readings will include articles covering topics about the convergence of fine art and craft, how objects affect our daily life and rituals, the place of craft within contemporary society. Specific authors may be : Chris Staley, Glenn Adamson, Jenni Sorkin, Okakura Kakuzo and Edmund de Waal Projects vary, but typically there are 5-6 assignments in the course with each assignment consisting of 3-20 pieces of finished work with additional research in glaze and firing processes. Students will also have readings and responsibilities with firing work.

Class Number

1847

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm M153

Description

This intro course will allow students to build upon and deconstruct our preconceived notions of what a 'pot' is. Can a pot be a subversive act of defiance? Can it express pleasure, grief or discomfort? We will explore what a pot can say and do beyond mere function. Investigating materiality, process, and conceptual frameworks the pot will serve as a form through which we?ll unpack issues ranging from the primordial to the celestial. Students will learn technical ceramic processes while examining the histories, practices, and conceptual potentialities of the vessel. We will look at artists who employ the vessel in their practice in a critical, subversive, personal and humorous ways. Some of the artists include Rubi Neri, Betty Woodman, Kathy Butterly, Theaster Gates, Sahar Khouri, Bari Ziperstein and more. Readings will include excerpts from ?Documents of Contemporary Art: CRAFT? and authors such as Glen Adamson, Edmund de Waal and Tanya Harrod. Students should expect to produce a body of work consisting of assigned and self directed projects to be presented in a culminating midterm and final critique.

Class Number

2015

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Area of Study

Community and Social Engagement, Art/Design and Politics

Location

280 Building Rm M153

Description

This class is an introduction to clay and technology unique to ceramics. This class is recommended for first year students. In this class we will begin to bring technology and clay together. This class will give you the fundamentals to continue your investigations into printing with clay. There is no required experience in 3d modeling to take this course. In this class objects will be created using Rhino from its commands such as Repeat, Rotation, Spin, Revolve, Round, Unroll, Unfold, Open, Line.. These pieces created virtually will be translated to reality via the Potterbot at SAIC in the Ceramics department. We will also look at rudimentary ways that we can be inventive and mimic the 3d printer at home with basic materials to create objects. We will look at artists working both in traditional and non-traditional methods. Discussion about the virtual and physical space will be a topic that will be discussed and how to negotiate that space as an artist. Artists will include but are not limited to: Tom Lauerman, Michael Eden, Stacy Jo Scott, Brian Boldon, Oliver Van Herpt, Slip Rabbit Studio, UNFOLD, Jonathan Keep. We will have weekly reading and articles covering topics related to ceramics and the digital, the history of the vessel and how the digital is seen in the contemporary art and design arena. Specific authors may be Jenni Sorkin, Okakura Kakuzo and Edmund de Waal.

Class Number

2305

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Area of Study

Product Design

Location

280 Building Rm M152

Description

A study of human anatomy for artists and representational figurative sculpting in clay, covering important and widely transferable formal principles and technical methods. In addition to traditional on-armature and handbuilding techniques, interested students will have access to ZBrush and may use it to produce maquettes and custom armatures through 3d printing and laser cutting. Qualified students may also have access to the Potterbot ceramic 3D printer for experimental use. Readings, guides, and other reference materials will include excerpts from: Edouard Lanteri?s Modelling and Sculpting the Human Figure, Stephen Rogers Peck?s Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist, and Uldis Zarins? Anatomy for Sculptors: Understanding the Human Figure. The course will be divided into three sections, the first two of which will involve the study of anatomy and sculptural technique. We will start with the bust (portraiture is optional), then move to the figure with scale studies of the torso, arms, and legs. Finally, students will have the opportunity to pursue a figurative project of their own design. Options for this project may include, but are not limited to: life-size or larger figures built in parts, figure groupings, formal and/or expressive figurative stylizations, and experimentation with the Potterbot ceramic 3D printer.

Class Number

1148

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Area of Study

Gender and Sexuality

Location

280 Building Rm M152

Description

The rich and unique possibilities of color on ceramics are investigated through the experimentation and manipulation of ceramic materials, processes and firings. We will explore how ceramic materials and processes for surfaces treatment on clay and ceramic could contribute to the content of the work. The students will acquire basic knowledge of ceramic materials, glazes, glaze application, and firing methods. We will make multiple trips to the museum to look at historic ceramic work to examine how and what the surfaces were treated with and how the ceramic work expresses cultural and societal significance of the time. We will also look at contemporary ceramic artists who create layers on the surface with multiple materials such as slip, engobes, terra sigillata, oxide washes, underglazes, overglazes, glazes, ceramic decals, lusters, and non-ceramic materials (acrylic paints, rhinestones, fur, etc.) Artists to look at: Greyson Perry, Ron Nagle, Jun Kaneko, Ken Price, Xavier Toubes Students should expect to produce a body of work consisting of 3-5 finished pieces during the semester, to be presented in mid-term and final critiques.

Class Number

1845

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm M153

Description

This course surveys the history and production of clay and ceramics, from one of the earliest ceramic objects known, dating back some 20,000 years, to the present use of clay in contemporary art, design and craft. The course will take us through every continent and be looking at the use of ceramic in different cultures at different times though history. Attention will be given to the role clay and ceramic plays in our human development both as ritualistic, artistic and functional handmade and mass-produced objects. From ceramic in an ancient caves to NASA and the use of ceramic in space and everything in between. Readings may include extracts from, ?Ten Thousand Years of Pottery? by Emannuel Cooper, ?Art, history, and gender: women and clay in West Africa? by Marla C. Berns , ?20th Century Ceramics (World of Art)? by Edmund de Waal, ?Arita / Table of Contents: Studies in Japanese Porcelain? by Anniina Koivu and ?Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art? by Clare Lilley and varius essays by Nigel Wood, Tanja Harrod, Glenn Adamson and Namita Gupta Wiggers Paired with exhibitions like the 2019 `The Journey of Things? by Magdalene Odundo The Hepworth Wakefield, The 2004 ?A Secret History of Clay: From Gauguin to Gormley? at TATE Liverpool and the permanent ceramic collection at The Art Institute of Chicago. Assignments include: working together to shape a research project proposal for a presentation on a specific part of the ceramic history, object-based written based on a piece of ceramics

Class Number

2108

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm 120

Description

This class will explore both traditional and non-traditional approaches to firing and using clay to explore the topics of humor, exaggeration and perception. Historical references such as 1960s California Funk Ceramics, High Victorian Rococo, as well as more contemporary approaches to clay will serve as starting points for sculptural, installation and performative projects.

Class Number

1146

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm M152

Description

This course examines a variety of cultures (African, North, Central and South American, European, Asian) through the lens of their ceramic histories. Students will develop vessels based on a response to this cultural information. Each projects will be rooted in a discussion and a tour with a different curator at AIC. Topics addressed will be: gender and sexuality, domestic and ritual vessels, architecture and environment, politics and culture and class and industry.

Class Number

2106

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm M153

Description

This class engages with feminist and queer theory to explore non-traditional methods of engaging with clay. Students will cultivate strategies for producing artwork in dialogue with conversations on the body as a medium, gender, and sexuality. Throughout the course, students will draw from assigned text, research, and art historical references as a source for contextualizing their own practice. Projects will explore the use of form, formlessness, and performance as processes for manipulating ceramic material.

Class Number

2107

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm M153

Description

Historically understood as the ecstatic experience of religious consciousness, mysticism has grown to encompass all visionary human experience and the pursuit of �ultimate truth�. We will travel down several veins of this rhizomatic structure in the hopes of understanding its complex form. This course combines two modalities: extensive studio time and reading/discussion of mystical, esoteric, and occult texts. Emphasis will be on ceramic hand building, process, and conceptual exploration. Some of the topics and figures discussed will be mystery, magic, paganism, surrealism and dreams, folk horror, denkbild, parapolitics, pre-Columbian relics, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Louise Bourgeois, Rene Magritte, Huma Bhabha, Arlene Shechet and others. You can expect to produce a body of work consisting of assigned and self-directed projects to be presented in a culminating midterm and final critique.

Class Number

1846

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm M152

Description

This technical studies course will explore glaze materials, the geology of ceramic materials, ceramic chemistry, glaze and clay body formulation, glaze colors, the function of heat, firing atmosphere, and glaze characteristics, behaviors and defects. The spectrum of raw ceramic materials become familiar to students through weekly lectures and discussions, numerous experimental glaze material tests and data recording and analysis. Students will learn how to safely use and exploit a wide variety of ceramic materials in order to develop a broader understanding of applications for personal expression. We will explore a wide range of glaze formulations while building a comprehensive foundation for understanding how materials can be used and formulated to yield specific and reproducible results. At the conclusion of this course, each individual will have the tools to precisely test and produce glaze formulations, understand how to use the various tools present in the glaze lab, and the ability to interpret written and fired formulae results. This class is designed as a half lecture and half lab course. Course work includes weekly reading, 10 glaze test assignments, mid-term and final quizzes and final critique.

Class Number

2105

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Area of Study

Art and Science

Location

280 Building Rm M153

Description

In this Professional Practice class, we will think about time and what it means to slow down when we are making and experiencing art. What does it look like if we did not have deadlines and how do we learn to use them in a productive way. Regular visit the Art Institute examining the way we look, experience and remember art. A variety of artist writings will be part of our weekly readings as we examining the divers approaches to writing an artist statement. Readings and Screenings. The Way Things Go by Peter Fischli and David Weiss. Dear young artist by Pope. L. Letters to a young Poet by Rainer Marie Rilke. Pegboard by Ryan Gande. Write, erase, do it over by Rebecca Gross and Beats that defy boxes by Reggie Watts. Required projects include a formal presentation describing/discussing your working process. An artist statement and CV. Participation in a class organized exhibition in the ceramic gallery in Columbus at the end of the semester.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: 2900 course

Class Number

1869

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm 120

Description

The uses of various materials are expanding through exploration of both design and fabrication through digital technology which allows us to visualize, analyze and fabricate forms that were previously out of reach. This course explores possibilities opened by the use of digital technology in design and fabrication of architectural elements of ceramic material. Students will explore combinations of automated and manual processes including CNC technologies and 3-D printing to forge a new methodology. Rhino is an essential tool in this course. We will explore what properties of ceramics make it a feasible and versatile building material. How can we re-invent traditional bricks and tiles? Integration of advanced digital technology into ceramics process is a key component for this class. Students will be encouraged to engage with contemporary cultural and social concerns such as sustainability, green technology, ergonomic, new modes of living, etc., with a view to opening up the latent possibilities towards forward thinking object design and production. An experimental approach to the ceramic materials, clay and glazes will be encouraged. Course work includes initial research, pin-up presentation, mid-term and final critique. Students will finish the semester with set/sets of ceramics objects.

Class Number

1147

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Area of Study

Product Design, Sustainable Design

Location

280 Building Rm M152

Description

In their work students will consider the possibilities of 'multiples' as duplicate, copy, replica, counterfeit, translation, group, growth, repetition, representation, pattern making, modular system, edition, progression, mutation, doppelganger, imitation, clone, reproduction, sequence, symbolism, mass production, additions over time and more. What does it mean to create in Multiples? Why make so many at this point in time when we live in a world where we already have so many objects? These are just some of the questions that the class will take on. All techniques in conjunction with clay will be used in this class. However, there will be demonstrations on making multiple part molds and slip casting, jiggering, glaze and surface manipulation. Some artist that we will study in this course include Paul Cummins, Rachel Kneebone, Caroline Slotte, Susan York, Richard Shaw, Wendy Walgate, Alexandra Englelfriet, Edmund de Waal, Walter McConnell, Bonnie Kemske, Hella Jongerius, Belinda Blignaut, Janet Deboos, Gabriel Orozco, Alissa Volchkova, Dylan Beck. Readings will come from a variety of sourse some of which might include Thinking Through Craft by Glen Adamson, Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art by Clare Lilley and CRAFT edited by Tanya Harrod, The White Road by Edmund De Waal. This course will allow students to create two self-directed projects. Students should to be able to produce a one and two part mold on their own upon the completion of this class.

Class Number

1149

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Area of Study

Product Design

Location

280 Building Rm M153

Description

This course offers advanced students a forum for critiques and discussion of contemporary ceramic directions. Emphasis is placed on individual development through complex integration of technology and information. Field trips and artists' studio tours provide a format for extensive dialogue. Students with a studio in the department are highly encouraged to enroll in this class.

Prerequisites

Open to students at Junior level and above.

Class Number

1844

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm M153

Description

This course is a forum for in-depth critiques, technical, conceptual, and professional practice discussions based on the student?s practice and research. The goal of this class is to provide students information and guidance on how they can continue with their art practice after school. Each student enrolled in the course will be assigned a studio space within the department. The course is open to Seniors only who have previously taken 9 credit hours of Ceramics classes, 2000-level and above. Students signing up for this class must also be enrolled in any 3 credit hour Ceramics class, 2000-level and above. Seniors may enroll in this course for two consecutive semesters only. Some of the books we will use as a reference for this class may be Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 by Sharon Louden and 33 Artists in 3 Acts by Sarah Thornton. Additionally, students will present to the class about an artist or thinker. The format for this course is primary individual and group meetings, readings, presentations, field trips, exhibitions, and group critiques. Additionally, we will have a discussion with guest artists speaking and about their work and the technicalities of how to continue with their art practice. Students will learn how to document, install, and promote their work. It is expected of the students to self direct their own project culminating with a final exhibition project as part of their BFA or Gallery 1922.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: 3900 course

Class Number

1850

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Location

280 Building Rm 109

Description

This interdisciplinary studio seminar based in the ceramics department is designed for grad students interested in exploring the endless possibilities that clay offers as a material adapted into individual studio and research practices. The first portion of this class will be technically based to learn different modes of construction, mold making, as well as different glazing and firing techniques in ceramics. The second portion will be focused on independent projects, advising and critical discussions. Readings will be a combination of history of ceramics, contemporary artist, and technical information. Some of the contemporary artists using clay within contemporary art practice we will study in this course include Cannupa Hanska Luger, Elizabeth Jaeger, Woody De Othello, and more. There will be discussions on the history of ceramics and how contemporary artists use clay in performance, sculpture, design, architecture, and print media. Students should expect to produce a consistent body of work to be presented in a culminating course critique at the end of the session. Junior and Senior-level undergraduate students are welcome to enroll in this course and should email the instructor to seek authorization to register.

Class Number

2109

Credits

3

Department

Ceramics

Area of Study

Art/Design and Politics, Gender and Sexuality

Location

280 Building Rm M152

Take the Next Step

Visit the graduate admissions website or contact the graduate admissions office at 312.629.6100, 800.232.7242, or gradmiss@saic.edu.